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Everyone wants to be middle management. You get paid more and Senior or Staff level is no longer your terminal career level (and therefore pay potential) as it
by darth_avocado 2y ago
Everyone wants to be middle management. You get paid more and Senior or Staff level is no longer your terminal career level (and therefore pay potential) as it is for most IC. Your performance evaluation becomes more subjective and less quantifiable, allowing you to hide your mediocrity and put it on others. Even if you’re same level as your ICs and the pay is same, you still hold the power in the relationship. If you’re bad manager, all the ICs can do is provide upward feedback, and that too is only at some workplaces. If you’re a bad manager, you can still fire an IC for “poor performance” any time. If company/product does poorly, ICs usually see the consequences. If the company/product does well, the management gets the pat on the back.
Even though I despise middle management, that is the only path I see forward if I want to continue being employed once I’m in my 40s.
- sanderjd 2y ago> Everyone wants to be middle management. False. > You get paid more So what? Getting paid more was far from my primary concern when working at a big company. I wanted interesting work with people I respected and liked. The pay was more than good enough as an IC. The rest of this is machiavellian bullshit that most people don't care about.
- darth_avocado 2y ago> The rest of this is Machiavellian bullshit that most people don’t care about. They don’t care about it yet. When you need more money, get laid off a couple times, or stagnate in their careers, they start caring.